Criticism of Greenpeace

During its history, Greenpeace has been criticized by a number of groups. These include governments, industry and political lobbyists and some environmental groups. The organization's use of nonviolent direct action has also caused controversy.

Criticisms

Some critics have said the organisation is too mainstream. Paul Watson, who left Greenpeace to found Sea Shepherd, once called Greenpeace "the Avon ladies of the environmental movement," because of their door-to-door fund-raising that relies on the media exposure of deliberately orchestrated and highly publicized actions to keep the name of Greenpeace on the front pages. Bradley Angel, who organized communities in California and Arizona for Greenpeace, split to found Greenaction in 1997. Greenpeace had summarily shut down its community-building operations, terminating more than 300 employees in the US alone, in what Mr Angel called "a betrayal".

A prominent critic of Greenpeace is Icelandic filmmaker Magnus Gudmundsson, director of a documentary Survival in the High North. Gudmundsson's criticisms have focused largely on the social impacts of anti-whaling and anti-sealing campaigns, while Gudmundsson's documentary was judged libellous by a Norwegian court in 1992 and he was ordered to pay damages to Greenpeace. Similarly, a Danish tribunal held that the allegations against Greenpeace about faking video materials were unfounded. Many media that published Gudmundsson's allegations have subsequently retracted and apologized (e.g. the Irish Sunday Business Post and TVNZ).

A former Greenpeace founding member, Patrick Moore, is also a critic. Moore's main criticisms have been leveled at the campaign to protect the forests of British Columbia.

The factual basis of particular campaigns has been criticized, for example over the Brent Spar oil platform affair in 1995, in which Greenpeace mounted a successful campaign (including occupation of the platform and a public boycott) to force one of the platform's co-owners, Royal Dutch/Shell, to dismantle the platform on land instead of scuttling it. A moratorium on the dumping of offshore installations was almost immediately adopted in Europe, and three years later the Environment Ministers of the countries bordering the North East Atlantic agreed with Greenpeace, and adopted a permanent ban on the dumping of offshore installations at sea (PDF). After the occupation of the Brent Spar it became known that Shell had misled the public as to the amount of toxic wastes on board the installation. Greenpeace admitted that its claims that the Spar contained 5000 tons of oil were inaccurate and apologized to Shell on September 5. However Greenpeace dismissed the issue of the amount of oil, saying that the main issue was one of wider industrial responsibility: as the first offshore installation to be dumped in the North East Atlantic, the Brent Spar would have been followed by dozens or hundreds more, thereby setting what Greenpeace considers to be a dangerous precedent. It also pointed out that the decision by Shell to scrap the Brent Spar had been taken before the incorrect amount of toxic waste was published by Greenpeace, and therefore that its mistake could not have influenced Shell's decision.

In September 2003 the Public Interest Watch (PIW) complained to the Internal Revenue Service claiming that Greenpeace tax returns were inaccurate and a violation of the law. PIW charged that Greenpeace was using non-profit donations for advocacy instead of charity and educational purposes. PIW asked the IRS to investigate the complaint. Greenpeace rejected the accusations and challenged PIW to disclose its funders, a request rejected by the then PIW Executive Director, Mike Hardiman, because PIW does not have 501c3 tax exempt status like Greenpeace does in the U.S. The IRS conducted an extensive review and concluded in December 2005 that Greenpeace USA continued to qualify for its tax-exempt status. In March 2006 the Wall Street Journal reported that PIW had been funded by ExxonMobil prior to PIW's request to investigate Greenpeace [6]. Exxon has been labeled 'No.1 Climate Criminal' by Greenpeace for its role in denying climate change. The charitable status of Greenpeace has been revoked in Canada (since 1989).

Anti-DDT Campaign and Resurgence of Malaria

Along with the Environmental Defense Fund and the WWF, Greenpeace has long supported the ban of DDT for agricultural purposes. Since 1955 the World Health Organization widely used DDT to control lice-carried Typhus and malaria mosquitoes. In Europe, North America, Northern Asia and parts of South America DDT use was widely credited with nearly eradicating Malaria. By 1973 growing concerns over DDT's effect on wildlife and especially birds lead to a full ban on the use of DDT in America. Pressure worldwide to stop DDT usage for agricultural purposes grew in the 1970s, with Greenpeace one of the most passionate advocates of a worldwide ban.

"Since the early 1970s, DDT has been banned in industrialised countries and the interdiction was gradually extended to malarious countries...because of environmental concerns... Despite objections by notable malariologists...the move away from spraying houses was progressively strengthened by WHO's malaria control strategies of 1969, 1979, and 1992...were adopted even though published WHO documents and committee reports have consistently and accurately characterised DDT-sprayed houses as the most cost effective and safe approach to malaria control...assistance from industrialised countries was often specifically contingent on not using DDT" Dr. D.R. Roberts in the 2000 The Lancet

Currently, Greenpeace has members serve on boards for the Stockholm Convention of Persistent Organic Pollutants, a UN-sponsored body that pressures countries to stop using environmental toxins such as DDT. The convention allows DDT to be used for Malaria control, however libertarian critics such as Paul Driessen claims the permit process has been so elaborate that up to 85% of USAID toward Malaria control is spent on environmental consultants needed to comply with the convention. Other libertarian opponents of Greenpeace such as Roger Bate claim that "As late as 2001 Greenpeace has been lobbying to shut down the last major DDT factory in the world located in Cochin, India, even persuading the Indian government to shut down the factory by 2005".

On April 25, 2005 the Ugandan minister of health Jim Muhwezi declared: "DDT has been proven, over and over again, to be the most effective and least expensive method of fighting malaria...malaria kills between 70,000 and 110,000 children every year[in Uganda]"

On September 16, 2006 the Director of the WHO's Global Malaria Program Dr. Arata Kochi announced with Dr Anarfi Asamoa-Baah Assistant Director-General that they would promote the spraying of DDT to control Malaria in Africa. Dr. Kochi said "One of the best tools we have against malaria is indoor residual house spraying. Of the dozen insecticides WHO has approved as safe for house spraying, the most effective is DDT." However as signatories of the Stockholm Convention, Greenpeace does not oppose use of DDT for the purpose of the eradication of malaria.

Critics of Greenpeace's DDT campaign include novelist Michael Crichton, Ralph Nader, Patrick Moore (environmentalist) and magician and libertarian Penn Jillette.

Anti-GMO campaigns

Dr. Patrick Moore, ecologist and an early member of Greenpeace, has broken with the group over a range of issues, including its campaign against genetically modified crops. He stated that "the campaign of fear now being waged against genetic modification is based largely on fantasy and a complete lack of respect for science and logic."

Greenpeace spends roughly $12 million annually on campaigns against genetically modified crops, and have thereby encouraged governments to establish regulation which an industry funded lobby group, AgBioWorld claims is overly restrictive.

Among other anti-GMO campaigns, Greenpeace opposes golden rice. The alternative proposed by Greenpeace is to discourage mono-cropping and to increase production of crops which are naturally nutrient rich (containing other nutrients not found in golden rice in addition to beta-carotene). The Golden Rice Project acknowledges that "While the most desirable option is a varied and sufficient diet, this goal is not always achievable, at least not in the short term."

Although it had admitted efficiency to be its primary concern as early as 2001, statements from March and April 2005 also continued to express concern over human health and environmental safety despite the fact that these sorts of fears have been widely discredited. While calling for human safety testing, Greenpeace has also opposed the field trials which would provide the needed material. Field trials were not conducted until 2004 and 2005.

The renewal of these concerns coincided with the publication of a paper in the journal Nature about a version of golden rice with much higher levels of beta carotene. This "golden rice 2" was developed and patented by Syngenta, which provoked Greenpeace to renew its allegation that the project is driven by profit motives.

Dr. C.S. Prakash, who is the director of the Center for Plant Biotechnology Research at Tuskegee University and is president of the industry lobby group AgBioWorld Foundation expressed the opinion that "[c]ritics condemned biotechnology as something that is purely for profit, that is being pursued only in the West, and with no benefits to the consumer. Golden Rice proves them wrong, so they need to discredit it any way they can."

Nuclear power

Greenpeace has been accused of downplaying the benefits of nuclear power by indicating that nuclear power can only satisfy electrical power requirements, and not those for heating or transport. Yet nuclear power could, through the electrical grid system, supply much of the energy demand for heating and transport energy requirements, and it has no 'end use' CO2 output. [7] In terms of climate change from CO2 emissions, nuclear power is as 'environmentally friendly' as are wind turbines or solar arrays. After protesting about nuclear power for a number of years, Greenpeace now maintains that nuclear power stations cannot be built quickly enough to reduce our CO2 emissions before "it is too late." However Greenpeace now overtly supports the burning of fossil fuel in Combined Heat and Power (CHP) plants because an all-renewable solution cannot be developed fast enough.

Commentators have also noted that Greenpeace does not often express concerns about nuclear waste - which is either a low-mass residuum (most nuclear reactors will 'burn' 2kg of U-235/U-238 fuel rods for 10 years of continuous output), which either is stored in incredibly tough/impermeable materials such as concrete, or is fully recyclable in a breeder reactor, the typical ratio being 3:1 for conventional:breeder reactors.

A life cycle analysis centered around the Swedish Forsmark Nuclear Power Plant estimated carbon dioxide emissions at 3.10 g/kWh and 5.05 g/kWh in 2002 for the Torness Nuclear Power Station. This compares to 11 g/kWh for hydroelectric power, 950 g/kWh for installed coal, 900 g/kWh for oil and 600 g/kWh for natural gas generation in the United States in 1999.

The Vattenfall study found Nuclear, Hydro, and Wind to have far less greenhouse emissions than other sources represented.

The Swedish utility Vattenfall did a study of full life cycle emissions of Nuclear, Hydro, Coal, Gas, Solar Cell, Peat and Wind which the utility uses to produce electricity. The net result of the study was that nuclear power produced 3.3 grams of carbon dioxide per KW-Hr of produced power. This compares to 400 for natural gas and 700 for coal (according to this study). The study also concluded that nuclear power produced the smallest amount of CO₂ of any of their electricity sources.

Greener Electronics campaign

In August 2006, Greenpeace released a "Guide to Greener Electronics," which ranked fourteen consumer electronics vendors in environmental issues. Greenpeace encouraged manufacturers to clean up their products by eliminating hazardous substances and to take back and recycle their products responsibly once they become obsolete.

The Guide to Greener Electronics stated "the ranking is important because the amounts of toxic e-waste is [sic] growing everyday and it often ends up dumped in the developing world. Reducing the toxic chemicals in products reduces pollution from old products and makes recycling safer, easier and cheaper." It ranked Nokia and Dell near the top, but essentially gave failing grades across the industry, ranking Toshiba thirteenth, and Apple Computer in eleventh place out of the fourteen brands. The report singled out Apple for its low rank, saying: "Already, many of the companies are in a race to reach the head of the class - that is, except for Apple, who seems determined to remain behind rather than be the teacher's pet we'd hoped for." This caught the attention of tech media news sites, and was widely reported. Greenpeace gave Nintendo a score of 0.3 / 10 is based on the fact that Greenpeace has almost no information on the company, which by Greenpeace's grading system, automatically results in a zero for the affected categories.

Daniel Eran of RoughlyDrafted Magazine criticized the guide in an article, saying the Greenpeace guide's "ranking puts far more weight upon what companies publicly say rather than what they actually do. It is also clear that Greenpeace intended the report more as an attention getting stunt than a serious rating of corporations' actual responsibility." In response, Greenpeace attacked Roughly Drafted's credibility, pointing out that it has in the past been called "the lunatic fringe of Mac fandom" by other bloggers after comparing the cost of Windows and Mac OS X.

It is in fact alleged that Greenpeace has had no factual evidence, instead relying on unsubstantiated official company information for the report in order to garner publicity, as well as political and monetary support. The Environmental Protection Agency's EPEAT shows Apple leading the ranks in all categories. ArsTechnica called the Greenpeace report a fraud after factual substantiation was questioned.

Greenpeace responded to the criticisms in a rebuttal also published by RoughlyDrafted. Along with the Greenpeace rebuttal, the article further presented the results of a second Greenpeace report, called "Toxic Chemicals in Your Laptop Exposed," which Roughly Drafted called an 'apology' for the initial claims Greenpeace made in the Greener Guide rankings. While Greenpeace itself has never used the word "apology", they did restate several of their initial claims in a response to Keith Ripley, another reviewer of the report. For example, the data reported findings of minimal traces of TBBPA, an unregulated fire retardant in the Apple computer; the Greenpeace press release said Apple "appears to be using far more of this toxic chemical than its competitors". This is despite the fact that the EU Scientific Committee on Health and Environmental Risks concluded in March of 2005 that TBBPA "presents no risk to human health" and "the World Health organisation conducted a scientific assessment of TBBPA and found that the risk for the general population is considered to be insignificant."

More criticism of the statement in the Greenpeace press release followed in: "The most recent report, 'Toxics in Your Laptop Exposed,' did credible scientific tests, but then threw out the data to instead present a lathered up, misleading and deceptive press release that was simply a lie. No amount of credible science is worth anything if you ignore the findings and simply present the message you wanted to the data to support."

Greenpeace published an article on its website, addressing the criticism so far, with a special focus on scientific issues.

Questionable actions

Coral destruction

In 2005, Greenpeace was fined for damaging almost 100 square meters of coral in Tubbataha Reef. The group accepted responsibility for the act, and paid a fine of approximately $7,000 equivalent in Philippine Pesos, while claiming that charts provided to them by the Philippine government were outdated and inaccurate.

In June 2006, The Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise was banned from attending the 58th International Whaling Commission meeting in St. Kitts by the St. Kitts and Nevis Government citing national security concerns.

Greenpeace's protests were discussed at the same IWC meeting with agenda item IWC/58/3, relating to their protest actions against Japanese whaling in the Southern ocean in December 2005 / January 2006, during which a collision occurred between a Japanese whaling ship and a Greenpeace ship, resulting in this resolution from the IWC. However, according to Lloyd's database (the international record of maritime movements and casualties), it was the Nisshin Maru, not the Arctic Sunrise, which was at fault for the collision in December 1999, as officially recorded after investigations.

Removal of ancient tree

In June 1995, Greenpeace took the trunk of a tree from the forests of Metsähallitus in Ilomantsi, Finland and put it on exhibitions held in Austria and Germany. They said in a press conference that the tree was originally logged by local people from an ancient forest, but in truth that tree had crashed over a road during a storm a few weeks before. The incident received much publicity in Finland, for example in the large newspapers Helsingin Sanomat and Ilta-Sanomat.

Mistaken deforestation

In Summer 2005, German Greenpeace Magazin 6/2005 showed a photo with a single scots pine tree alone on a wide snowy area that was said to be a result of the clear-cutting of a Finnish forest (in German "Kahlschlag am nordfinnischen Peurakairasee"). This was later found to be an error; the area seen in the photo was actually a swamp and had never been a forest. Greenpeace admitted and corrected their error and published a photo of an actual cutting area in the next edition as a result.

Press release blunder

In Philadelphia, in 2006, Greenpeace accidentally issued a press release containing the words "In the twenty years since the Chernobyl tragedy, the world's worst nuclear accident, there have been nearly [FILL IN ALARMIST AND ARMAGEDDONIST FACTOID HERE]." The final report warned of plane crashes and reactor meltdowns. This has been claimed to be the most explicit demonstration of Greenpeace scare-campaigning to date. According to Greenpeace spokesman the memo was a joke that was mistakenly released.